Builds Goose Gear 80 Series Build (5 Viewers)

[SoCal80series]

About a month ago I bought my first 80 Series Land Cruiser to build into an overlanding rig. The 80 has 203k miles on it with a engine rebuild about 4,000 miles ago. The rebuild is somewhat suspect, the mechanic I had look at it didn't like how it was rebuilt. The place that did it is a transmission shop, but otherwise had good reviews on Yelp and Google Reviews. The owner was asking $6,500 for it and I offered $3,500 and picked it up for $3,700. It is straight, has been in no accidents that caused frame damage, and has no rust. The front passenger door and passenger fender are damaged. I already picked up a replacement door from Death Valley Paul and am on the hunt for a matching fender.

 

[SoCal80series]

The first thing I did was lose the grill guard and tail light guards.

 

[SoCal80series]

The next thing I did was replace the name badge on the rear hatch. Someone must have tried to steal it and snapped it in half in the process of trying to take it.

 

[SoCal80series]

Next up was removing the second and third row seats to get ready to install a Goose Gear sleeping platform.

 

[SoCal80series]

Re-gearing and getting it off the ground is next on the list. 4:88 gears and an ARB locker are arriving today from Nitro Gears. After this will be putting Icon Stage 3 suspension in and then 35" General Tire Grabber MTs on either Method 7.1/7.2, or Icon rims. Waiting to see on that. Hopefully, I'll get the gears and locker installed around the 17th of June and the suspension a couple of weeks later by Demello. I will post pics when I get the work done.

 

[SoCal80series]

I should add that I am doing the regearing sooner than I originally planned. It seems that the rear diff went out on this vehicle and the mechanic that serviced it didn't know what he or she was doing. It sounds like they went to the junk yard and pulled a locking diff and installed it. The problem is this doesn't have a locker on it and now it's permanently locked.

 

[SoCal80series]

I have a question. Is replacement liners for the fender wells readily available? If you look at the pictures above, you will see that the seals are failing.

 

[cruiserpilot]

So this Goose Gear is a modular system of components and you buy what you feel you need?
It seems a bit pricey, but it looks like a well made/designed system. Probably save all kinds of time
and looks nicely organized.
Truck looks good, I'm going to follow along. Good luck getting the rest of the truck up to speed.

 

[SoCal80series]

So this Goose Gear is a modular system of components and you buy what you feel you need?
It seems a bit pricey, but it looks like a well made/designed system. Probably save all kinds of time
and looks nicely organized.
Truck looks good, I'm going to follow along. Good luck getting the rest of the truck up to speed.

Thanks. I am an organization freak. Getting to camp and knowing where everything is makes life much easier and more importantly - enjoyable. Looking forward to getting the build going. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[SoCal80series]

The 4:88 gears from Nitro Gear and Axel and the

ARB locker and twin compressor have arrived. Off to Pro Gears in San Diego to get it re-geared on the 14th of June.

 

[SoCal80series]

Whenever you buy a used vehicle it is its quirks that take a while to discover. I went to fill up the tank for the first time and discovered the gas cap cover door wouldn't release. Thanks to @Kernal for showing what was missing and telling me how to get it open until the part arrives.

 

[SoCal80series]

Here is a profile picture of the 80. Just because.

 

[SoCal80series]

Getting ready to get the gears and ARB locker installed. Purchased the wit's end 80 series quarter panel to mount the ARB twin air compressor to.

 

[SoCal80series]

Had a little difficulty shoe horning the quarter panel in and adjusting it to match the mounting points. I finally figured out that it was some body damage that had pushed in the rear panel on the passenger side. That in turn had pushed the mounting screw from the side reflector light into the path of the panel.

 

[SoCal80series]

I ended up pulling the screws out of the reflector and was able to adjust it to fit. It ended up taking a couple of hours to install because of this.

Tomorrow I get to take it out again, because I forgot to replug the drain from the sun roof. Uuugghh!

 

[SoCal80series]

Didn't end up having to completely retake out the quarter panel. Only had to take the screws out and lift it out enough to get my hand underneath. I then re-routed the drain hose for the sun roof behind the panel and then plugged it into the drain hole where it belonged.

 

[SoCal80series]

Trying to find a replacement cap for my driver side seat - plus the plastic lever. I hate looking at it unfinished every time I open the door. If it was the passenger side, I probably wouldn't bother.

 

[SoCal80series]

I have back issues - and I am seriously looking into the Scheel-Mann seats. I need my wallet to recover from everything I am doing this summer, before I can look into it.

 

[SoCal80series]

Tending to the small things from the previous owner's neglect. A lot of little things to repair and tighten up. The spring on the fuel filler door was missing and wouldn't open. Thanks to @Kernal for the help. The part was ordered and is now installed. Never before has opening the release door to the gas tank been so fulfilling (pun kind of intended).

 

[ontopofm]

The 4:88 gears from Nitro Gear and Axel and the View attachment 1990194ARB locker and twin compressor have arrived. Off to Pro Gears in San Diego to get it re-geared on the 14th of June.

Dont know if this is too late but I didn’t have good experience with Pro Gears doing my regear. They dont carry enough shims and dont have the right torque specs for the 80 diffs. My diffs got loud noise under loads and had to bring my truck to them 3 times to fix it. The noise is still there but not as bad. They blamed it on Nitro gears and had Nitro send the replacement. Now I have 1 extra set of pinion and gear.